Dessert

And so after all the highs, lows, drama, medals and excitement of the past two weeks, the London 2012 Summer Olympics finally drew to a close on Sunday night with a much debated but (in my opinion) dazzling closing ceremony and a huge party. Monday morning we all felt a little dazed I think, but […]

Pop quiz, ladies and gentlemen: Who can tell me what the following list of items have in common: Xiri, Catawba, Manx, Coeur d’Alene, Gamilaraay, Chamacoco, Faetar, and Occitan? If you said they were the names of all Brangelina’s children in order of age, you’d be… pretty amusing but… WRONG. But if you said that they are all endangered languages you’d be 100% correct.

It’s a funny old place, the Internet. This weekend, I was reminded of what an alien and lonely environment it seemed when I took my first tentative steps online back in 2004 when I started this blog. My nephew, aged 9, had been watching me in fascination for a few days as I posted […]

There are some things that simply should not be messed with. Just ask the Coca-Cola Company. In 1985 they decided to take the formula for Coca-Cola that had made them a fortune since Atlanta drugstore owner John Pemberton develoed it in 1885 and tweak it as a centenary celebration – on other words, they […]

So – who can tell me what a Trojan horse is? This is one of those questions that shows your age, I’m afraid. If you are of a certain age (ahem!) you will tell me about how the Greeks besieged the city of Troy but despite their efforts, nothing seemed to be able to break […]

When I first got to the UK in 2000, I embarked on a culinary voyage of discovery. Suddenly, berries that had cost half a month’s salary in South Africa (or simply weren’t available) were available on every supermarket shelf – and sometimes even available for free in the hedgerows around our house! The stuff I […]

One of the things people often ask me at this time of year is what some proper South African Christmas traditions are. It’s at times like this when I am faced with the sudden urge to make up something totally outlandish, along the lines of “first, you have to feed the giraffes their customary mince pies, otherwise they […]